That is true. Nevertheless, the figure lends itself to sensationalism. Although it’s obvious that we should seek to improve quality, it should also be clear that risks have to be taken by physicians when they treat patients.

If no physician ever treated a patient, the rate of adverse events would be zero. Similarly, if nobody ever drove a car, the number of traffic fatalities would be zero.

Also, “contributing” to a patient’s death is a bit of a wriggly verb, isn’t it? Suppose a patient presents in the ER near death, and the ER physician (racing against the clock) does something that’s deemed harmful – in hindsight? Would it have been better for him to have done nothing? In come cases, perhaps – but not likely.

“Prediction: life on earth will be over somewhere between 1.75 billion and 3.25 billion years from now.”

This completely writes out human ingenuity from the equation however. Granted, surviving that long will be a challenge in itself, but if we succeed then the technology we will likely have at our disposal will probably make solving that problem child’s play.